48: Jim Goes Solo: How to Build Your Messaging Playbook

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In this episode of The Manage Your Message Podcast host Jim Karrh shares the “how” (and the “why”) for growing your business with the help of a messaging playbook.

Jim begins by acknowledging how important a consistently engaging message is today – and how difficult it can be to create and manage. A playbook approach has proven to be practical and effective in these noisy times.

There are some misconceptions about what a playbook is and is not:

Playbooks are not rule books, taking the place of employee manuals or handbooks
Playbooks are not libraries or repositories, a place to toss product information, sales collateral, or customer-experience scorecards
Playbook are guides for specific conversations

What goes into a messaging playbook? Organizations differ, of course, but the most common elements include:

The ideal customer or client for the business
Buyer personas or roles
The problems your organization helps to solve (as the buyer would define them)
The things that make your organization truly different
Customer stories, visuals, and insights to share

Jim also shares four considerations for organization leaders, based upon his experience in co-creating and implementing messaging playbooks:

Your playbook should be connected to important priorities for growth. This is not a fad or some short-term campaign.
This is neither a substitute for, nor in conflict with, the messages in your advertising, public relations, or social channels. Rather, it is a translation for building consistency (and taking advantage of the fact that most of your future growth sits in those everyday, offline business conversations!).
This is not a solo act. Let your message emerge from a process of co-creation (across people and units, considering all the different people whom you need to share it).
Plan for launch and implementation, from the very beginning.

Links:

Learn more about Jim Karrh:

https://jimkarrh.com/

Check out a sample of Jim’s new book, The Science of Customer Connections: Manage Your Message to Grow Your Business:

https://en.calameo.com/read/005570974156e126cc29e

Follow Jim on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/jimkarrh?lang=en

Connect with Jim on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkarrh

or email jim@jimkarrh.com

Listen and subscribe to The Manage Your Message podcast: iTunes and jimkarrh.com/podcast/